Infighting, Confusion Stymie Anti-terrorist Efforts, Panel Reports

July 15, 1999|By Michael Kilian, Washington Bureau.

WASHINGTON — Turf fights, overlapping jurisdictions, inadequate intelligence, bureaucratic confusion and a lack of central leadership are preventing the U.S. government from coping with the threat posed by weapons of mass destruction and their use by terrorists, a top-level report warned Wednesday.

"The U.S. government is not effectively organized to combat proliferation," the report stated. "The nation lacks a comprehensive policy and plan to meet the threat."

The report called for creation of a new federal agency to direct anti-terrorism and anti-proliferation efforts, as well as interagency operations to block plots by terrorists and rogue nations before they get under way.

Prepared by a bipartisan commission headed by former CIA Director John Deutch, the congressionally mandated study found that funding, missions, technological expertise and intelligence reporting are scattered among dozens of often competing or secretive federal agencies.

There is no single agency or individual to give direction or properly advise the president on what the report described as "a chilling new reality for our country."

The commission found that even the Defense Department lagged in adequate preparations for a terrorist attack involving nuclear, biological or chemical weapons.

"Loudspeaker announcements and shouting remain our principal means of alert against biological and chemical attacks," it said. "Nine years after the gulf war, only an interim biological detection system is available to our military forces in the field."

The study was sent to the president as well as House and Senate leaders of both parties. It in part faulted the Clinton White House as well as previous administrations for failing to adequately address the growing threats.

"Presidential leadership is essential to ensure that a strategy for combating proliferation is formulated, understood and implemented by the many agencies involved," it said.

The report urged that the vice president be given "a special role" in overseeing anti-proliferation efforts.

Also strongly recommended was consolidation of U.S. anti-terrorist and anti-proliferation programs under the leadership of a new agency to be known as the Combating Proliferation Council. Its director would serve as the president's chief adviser on nuclear, biological and chemical-weapons proliferation as well as coordinate efforts to control such threats.

The report urged that federal spending on efforts to control proliferation, now scattered over many agencies, be combined into a single budget item, to better direct the allocation of resources.

It also called for the creation of an interagency group representing the Defense Department, the FBI and related agencies that would attempt to stop terrorist plans and plots before they're carried out, rather than wait for the U.S. to react to terrorist acts, as it has in the past, Deutch said.

The U.S. is losing the battle to stem the flow abroad of technology, equipment and raw materials needed for weapons development, the study said.

"To an increasing degree, enabling technology for advanced military capabilities is drawn from the commercial sector," the report said. "These technologies are available from suppliers throughout the world."

Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), the commission vice chairman and former chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said he will introduce legislation Thursday to create a government data bank capable of globally tracking the sale and transfer of technology, equipment and raw materials used in developing weapons of mass destruction.

"We live in a hostile world where hostile forces will seek to exploit weapons of mass destruction," Specter said in a statement with Deutch. "Because this threat is so grave, the United States must have the best possible organization to oppose it."

The commission was established by Congress in January 1998 in response to concerns about increases in international arms development and the U.S.'s apparent inability to control it.

Another report released this week by the General Accounting Office faulted a variety of federal agencies for failure to coordinate their actions against international terrorism and for not sharing information on "lessons learned."

Last month, Clinton's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board, chaired by former Sen. Warren Rudman (R-N.H.), released a report complaining of widespread leaks and losses of highly-classified nuclear weapons secrets from various labs run by the Energy Department--losses that may have resulted in China gaining vital data on U.S. nuclear warheads.

The Deutch report cited the possible transfer of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons technology from China to other nations as one of the dangers facing the U.S.